Sabbath - Memorial of Deliverance

Wasn't The Sabbath Only a Memorial of Deliverance out of Egypt? This strange idea is drawn from a single text in the Old Testament and is distorted to contradict many clear statements about the true origin of the Sabbath. The text is found in Deuteronomy 5:14, 15: But the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You must not do any work, you nor your son nor your daughter nor your slave man nor your slave girl nor your bull nor your ass nor any domestic animal of yours nor your alien resident who is inside your gates, in order that your slave man and your slave girl may rest the same as you. 15 And you must remember that you became a slave in the land of Egypt and Jehovah your God proceeded to bring you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That is why Jehovah your God commanded you to carry on the sabbath day.

Some people draw from this text that God gave the Sabbath as a memorial of the Exodus from Egypt. But the Genesis story of the making of the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3) and the wording of the fourth commandment by God Himself (Exodus 20:11) reveals the Sabbath as a memorial of creation.

Ex 20:11For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and he proceeded to rest on the seventh day. That is why Jehovah blessed the sabbath day and proceeded to make it sacred.

The key to understanding these two verses rests in the word "slave" or servant. God said, " you must remember that you became a slave in the land of Egypt." And in the sentence before this one He reminds them "that your slave man and your slave girl may rest the same as you." In other words, their experience in Egypt as servants would remind them to deal justly with their servants by giving them Sabbath rest.

In similar vein God had commanded, " And in case an alien resident resides with you as an alien in YOUR land, YOU must not mistreat him…. for YOU became alien residents in the land of Egypt. " Leviticus 19:33, 34.

It was not unusual for God to hark back to the Egyptian deliverance as an incentive to obey other commandments. In Deuteronomy 24:17, 18, God said, "You must not pervert the judgment of the alien resident or of the fatherless boy, and you must not seize the garment of a widow as a pledge. 18 And you must remember that you became a slave in Egypt, and Jehovah your God proceeded to redeem you from there. That is why I am commanding you to do this thing."

Surely no one would insist that dealing kindly with their servants did not exist before the Exodus, or that it would be ever afterwards limited only to the Jews, to memorialize their deliverance.

Neither the command to be just nor to keep the Sabbath was given to memorialize the Exodus, but God told them that His goodness in bringing them out of captivity constituted a strong additional reason for their dealing kindly with their servants on the Sabbath and treating justly the strangers and widows.

Answering Jehovah Witnesses from the NWT (Holy Spirit)

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the EVERLASTING GOSPEL to preach to every tongue...Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the COMMANDMENTS of God and the FAITH of Jesus", (Revelation 14:6-12)